The Lyric Opera Orchestra, on strike since last Tuesday, has ratified a labor agreement with the opera company.
The decision came late Sunday afternoon, after a tentative agreement had been struck between union leadership and Lyric Opera on Saturday evening.
The agreement calls for the orchestra to be reduced by four musicians, instead of five, taking the full-time ensemble down to 70 from 74. Freelance musicians will continue to be hired for opera productions that require a larger orchestra.
The 2019-20 opera season will run 22 weeks, instead of 24, as Lyric Opera management had insisted. But the season will include a guarantee of five additional weeks for Richard Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.”
The spring musical will guarantee employment to 37 musicians and will increase their salary by 6.6 percent.
“It’s not as large of a decrease in pay as we had feared,” said Kathleen Brauer, a Lyric Opera Orchestra violinist and representative.
In effect, the orchestra members will receive a higher rate of pay — 5.6 percent increase in weekly salary over the three-year contract term, according to a statement from the orchestra — but fewer weeks of work.
“There are small, small gains in this,” Brauer said.
“We felt a longer strike would have been terribly destructive for the other unions, for people’s families, for the loyal patrons,” Brauer added, referring to unions that already had come to agreements with Lyric Opera management.
“I think we all need to heal from this at the present time. The orchestra is really passionate about keeping this company a world-class institution, and we will continue to fight for this.”
Said a Lyric Opera representative in an email, “We aren’t making any further comments at this time.”
Tickets are now on sale for Puccini’s “La Boheme” on Wednesday evening and the opening of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” on Thursday evening.
